UCLA teacher Octavio Pescador lost last Tuesday’s Council District 13 election, finishing seventh in a field of a dozen candidates. But, if he ever decides to run again, Pescador may win over residents whose pet peeve are the tattered and bleached campaign posters and signs that dot neighborhoods long after election day has passed. On Saturday afternoon, Pescador was in Echo Park, personally removing his large posters that had been taped to shop windows along Sunset Boulevard.

Vandals had made the job easier, ripping down many of the color posters, Pescador said. In fact, during the campaign, his volunteers, which included many of his students, were involved in a daily battle to replace torn down posters.

Jeffrey Turner/Flickr

Pescador may have lost the election (first place finisher Mitch O’Farrell will face second place challenger John Choi in a May 21 runoff) but said he was successful in giving a voice to disenfranchised voters and raising awareness of the responsibilities of the council office among immigrants. He was also proud of his cost effective campaigning. In an email, Pescador said:

Our volunteer team was very effective: a $15K budget sufficed to knock on 10,000+ doors, talk to 6,000 voters directly and obtain 1,199 votes.

If there are still any Pescador’s posters or signs still out there, Pescador said to let him know by sending an email to opescado@gmail.com.

I saw the posters but wasn’t familiar with the candidate. This small but responsible gesture has already earned him stronger consideration for next time. It’s more than I’ve ever seen either Choi or O’Farrell do for our community and what I’ve heard of Choi is particularly underwhelming. However, a visible and well-timed gesture(s) goes a long way in these local contests. O’Farrell and Choi should take note.

All through the campaign you posted all of your posters in our Community creating visual blight with your ugly mug. Now you are covering your tracks by removing all of the illegal signs you printed and posted in CD 13 without reporting the expenditures to the City Ethics Commission. Where did you get all of the money to print off the expensive color posters without reporting it to the City Ethics Commission? Thank you “The Eastsider” for providing evidence that Mr. Pescador did not report expenditures to the Ethics Commission. Follow the money, look at the expenditure reports that Pescador reported to the City, nowhere does it list any printing expenditures. Who financed your campaign Mr. Pescador, was it A) Your dad’s Mexico P.R.I. buddies, or B) Another unnamed candidate who made the run off, inquiring minds want to know.

I am not surprised by what Alex is claiming. Mr Pecador came down from his Ivory Tower to be amongst us, the working class. His family is intimately related to the most corrupt polital party in the world El PRI. For you to claim & say you are an immigrant is false and a lie. Most immigrants to the USA risk life & limb to get here. You are from a privileged class where your father, Jose Angel Pescador Osuna easily processed the paperwork to make you a citizen. The political party your family comes from has been corrupt since its inception and continues to make deals with the drug cartels. Who paid for your signs all over Los Angeles? Why didn’t you report it?

Funny, i thought all this chatter was fodder, but i just did my home work and its all in the internet. LA city ethics post for tranparency, and you sir Pescador were not and still are not transparent. The poster you hold in your hand in the picture tells a different story. Mexican politics is no place for america.

I hope all the Candidates that did not make it to the run-off now clean up their posters not only in Echo Park but Historic Filipinotown and the rest of CD13 as well. It is about time to clean up your own mess…

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